The Future of Education is Not What it Used To Be – Jack Delosa, TedX Talks

I recently spoke in at TEDx around the value of a university degree in today’s quickly changing world. I bring a level of visibility to this issue by looking at the gap between what is being taught at a Higher Education level and what the business world actually needs.

I wanted to share this talk with you today as right now high school graduates across Australia are finding out if they got into their desired course at university. The question on most student’s minds at the moment is: What university degree should I study?

What concerns me as a younger person in an up-and-coming generation is this cultural paradigm that we should all choose to go to university if we are accepted, without question and at any cost.

In my view the questions we actually need to be asking now are: Will going to university enable me to build a life and a career that is meaningful to me? Will I learn the skills I need to contribute to the world I want to create?

If we look objectively at the research to answer these questions we see that only 42% of employers think that graduates are adequately prepared to move into work.

Essentially what this says is that despite the time and funds students are investing into their education, the skills they are learning do not correlate to what the world needs in 2015 and beyond.

I encourage you to share this with your network, in particular with anyone you know who might be contemplating whether they should pursue under graduate or post graduate education.

This is not meant to deter people from university, but to encourage people to question whether it is the best path for them and to look at it objectively like any other investment.

Some will work out for themselves that it is the right thing to do, and others will determine that there is a more effective path to building the life and career they want.

About Jack Delosa

Jack Delosa is an entrepreneur and investor who is changing education. He is the founder and CEO of Australia’s largest education institution for entrepreneurs, The Entourage. He is also an investor in growth companies such as Q-Biotics and eMerchants (ASX:EML), and founded The Entourage Growth Fund, which invests in upstart businesses. He is one of Australia’s leading entrepreneurs, having been listed in the BRW Young Rich List since 2014.